The third and final lecture in the “Abrupt Climate Change” series will feature Ohio State University's Lonnie G. Thompson Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial. He will address the topic, “Abrupt Climate Change: Past, Present and Future.” The event, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.
Thompson is a Distinguished University Professor in Geological Sciences and research scientist in the Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University. The recipient of the 2005 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, he has received more than 50 grants and published nearly 200 scientific articles.
Thompson maintains an active field research program, in which he drills ice cores from Earth's most daunting peaks. He was the first to show that it was possible to get deep cores from high mountain peaks; then he extracted paleoclimate records showing how temperatures on our planet have changed during recent geologic times.
Three years ago, Thompson demonstrated that the famous snows on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa, have been there for more than 11,000 years, but may be gone in 2015. His research lab is trying to collect ice cores from endangered tropical glaciers, such as Mt. Kilimanjaro, before warming destroys them.